Due to scheduling conflicts, Natasha Richardson will not be appearing in the Roundabout Theatre Company staging of Miss Julie on Broadway this season, and the company is seeking another actress for the title role in the August Strindberg play.

Philip Seymour Hoffman remains with the staging, however, directed by David Leaveux and translated by Richard Nelson.

The classic about the capricious daughter of a wealthy Count who disastrously dallies with the affections of Jean, the Count's servant (played by Hoffman), will play the Longacre Theatre, beginning Jan. 14, 2003.

Casting for the third character, a maid, has not yet been announced.

Variety reported that Rachel Weisz ("The Mummy" and Off-Broadway's The Shape of Things) will replace Richardson, but a spokesman said nothing could be confirmed about casting, but the show would indeed be going on. "We are pursuing other alternatives" to Richardson, a spokesman said. Richardson won a Tony Award for her Sally Bowles in Cabaret and has acted in Anna Christie and Closer.

Hoffman alternated playing brothers Lee and Austin with John C. Reilly in the recent famous revival of True West. Last summer, he played Constantine in the Central Park rendering of The Seagull.

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Visit roundabouttheatre.org.

—By Robert Simonson
and Kenneth Jones